Kompany lauds Bayern's courage in comeback win

By Sports Desk August 25, 2024

Bayern Munich head coach Vincent Kompany praised his side's mentality after they came from behind to beat Wolfsburg in their Bundesliga opener on Sunday.

An 82nd-minute goal from Serge Gnabry secured a 3-2 win at Wolfsburg and handed Kompany, who replaced Thomas Tuchel after their disappointing third-place finish last season, a winning start in the Bundesliga.

Bayern took the lead thanks to Jamal Musiala's 19th-minute opener, but started the second half in shocking fashion as they gave away a penalty just after the restart and then made a defensive error that enabled Wolfsburg to turn matters around.

However, after an own goal from Jakub Kaminski, Harry Kane teed up Gnabry to grab a late winner and seal all three points.

"I enjoyed it, it was my first Bundesliga game as a coach," Kompany said.

"The first half was dominant, as it should be. We didn't concede any chances. The second half wasn't good at the beginning, we conceded two quick goals. The third point is that our mentality was right at the end, and that's why we won the game.

"Mistakes happen, the important thing is how the team reacts. That took a while in the second half. Thomas Muller and Kingsley Coman came in with the right mentality and the tempo came back.

"At the end of the second half, we had a lot of courage to win the game. It wasn't perfect, but we'll keep going."

Joshua Kimmich said Bayern's reaction was good in the second half.

"It was extremely difficult, the pitch was very dry, so the game stalled at times. Perhaps it wasn't always presentable," he said.

"But in the end I'm happy that we won it. The mentality was right."

Bayern are now undefeated in their past 13 Bundesliga openers (W11 D2) – a new record for a team in the competition's history.

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